Staffing for Judo

Gerald Lafon commented on Monday’s post saying “The key will be staffing and good equipment.” I absolutely agree with that. That’s what we’re discussing today: Staffing at the martial arts dojo. I’m putting this in the perspective of the business owner not the customer.

A martial arts dojo is like every business because it has employees. The big difference is that some of its employees are teachers. Most dojo seem to think that the most important people in the dojo are the instructors, that is why the business exists, right? Napoleon, in discussing logistics, said, “An army travels on its stomach.” A business, similarly, works because of its support people.

Let’s start with the instructors. Every instructor brings a unique perspective to teaching the martial arts to students. Some instructors are ultra-traditionalist while others go to the other end of the spectrum and teach only to compete. Finding someone who can find that middle ground is difficult. Cultivating your own instructors, while seriously time consuming, is a good way to develop the right fit for your organization.

Next up is the background staffing. The professional martial arts dojo needs to be a professional environment. That means having someone who can manage the office. Whether you have a big dojo or a small one, having someone that knows how to make an office run smoothly will make the instructor’s job easier because he or she isn’t busy trying to do every other thing. Your office manager should understand basic bookkeeping, customer relations, retail management, and employee relations at a minimum. He or she doesn’t need to be an expert at any of them, but they shouldn’t be completely ignorant of them either.

So what does the office manager in a dojo really do? They run the shop. Imagine a typical day at a business: appointments, schedules, ordering, invoicing, collecting, banking, bill paying. These are the primary tasks of an office manager. That person makes sure all the calendars, schedules, and appointments are getting taken care of so the business has a steady stream of students and classes for the instructors which is where a large volume of income comes from.

The retail side of the business (ordering, invoicing, and collecting) are where the money comes in and goes out to support operations. The retail side of a business consists of tuition and scholarships, uniform and equipment sales, and other income from operations (books, dvd’s, etc.). Tuition really has nothing that needs ordering because it’s the training and your instructors teach that. Uniforms, equipment, and other orderable inventory have to be tracked, stocked, ordered, and so on to make sure that enough of everything is on hand to make sure that new students receive their uniforms so they can start judo in uniforms and customers who want to buy things don’t have the chance to change their minds while the product is on order. All of this needs to have a coordinator; that’s your office manager.

After the office manager, you could have as many other positions as you want. I suggest small staffs to start out and grow as your business does. For example, if you have to have a lot of retail sales for uniforms and equipment on a regular basis, have a retail clerk, but if you don’t, don’t.

Finally, for today, training is critical. Every person in you dojo has to know what the programs are and how to find the prices, that’s a gimme. But more important is customer care and service. Your staff has to know how to interact with customers, potential customers, family members, and friends. That takes a lot of work and a lot of it continuously. Take the time to train them on the best ways for interacting and paying attention to every single person that comes in the door. Friendly is the goal, hovering is not. Language use is critical so pay special attention to helping your staff members understand better ways of communicating with everyone.

Let me know what you think of this idea, post in the comments below or e-mail! Don’t forget to like the Roswell and New Mexico Military Institute Judo Clubs on Facebook!